Olivier Giroud is set to start in attack for Arsenal, who will also rotate their squad but are unlikely to field any untested youngsters.

Arsene Wenger said on Tuesday: “At the moment the youth-team players, many of them who are ready to play for us are away on loan. The next players who have the talent are not completely ready to play at that level.

“With the difficulty of the opponent as well, you do not want to throw them into a game where they look out of place.”

Francis Coquelin has been ruled out with a knee injury.

Stats

Arsenal have lost only seven of 45 north London derbies against Tottenham – but they took only one point from two games against their local rivals in the Premier League last season, with a Harry Kane double earning Spurs a 2-1 win in the most recent meeting at White Hart Lane in February.

Arsenal won all three derbies in the 2013-14 campaign without conceding a goal, but Spurs have won two of the last three encounters at White Hart Lane and have lost only three of the last 13. The last time they met in the League Cup, however, was also in the third round on Spurs territory in 2010-11 when Arsene Wenger’s side claimed a 4-1 win after extra time.

Spurs reached the final of the Capital One Cup last season, losing 2-0 to Chelsea at Wembley, while Arsenal suffered their earliest exit in the competition since 2002 as they were knocked out at this stage by Sunderland.

The Gunners are slightly ahead in the Premier League so far this season having taken 10 points to Spurs’ nine from the opening six games, but both clubs were criticised for their summer transfer business, with Arsene Wenger failing to sign a single outfield player and Mauricio Pochettino not managing to land an out-and-out centre-forward to compete with Harry Kane.

Best XIs

Ahead of Wednesday night’s clash, three of our writers have picked a combined Tottenham-Arsenal XI.